5 More Die in 2 Hours as Gang Guns Erupt Anew

Five people were killed in Los Angeles County during a two-hour flurry of gang-related violence late Saturday and early Sunday, including two men shot in separate gang-sponsored Halloween parties and two bystanders in the path of bullets meant for a rival gang member, authorities said.

A 24-year-old woman died, a 17-year-old boy was fatally wounded, and two men were in critical condition as the result of a shooting outside a liquor store in the Willowbrook area about 10:15 p.m. Saturday.

Sheriff’s spokesman Bill Wehner said a teen-ager armed with a handgun yelled out the name of a gang and then fired into a group of about 10 people standing near the Direct Liquor Store at 12800 San Pedro St.

The gunman fled with another youth in a small blue pickup truck that had been parked behind the store, officers said.

Store manager Floyd Frazier said the violence erupted when the gunman, who had been leaning on an ice cream cooler in the store, “like he was waiting for something to happen,” encountered another young man who was standing outside the doorway.

When the other youth replied, “Piru,” the name of a Compton gang, the gunman opened fire and then ran toward the truck, investigators said.

The identities of the dead woman and the teen-ager, a clerk at the store who died shortly after arrival at a hospital, were not released.

A 26-year-old man and a 40-year-old man were in critical condition at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center with bullet wounds in the chest.

The violence continued in South Gate, where a 19-year-old Huntington Park man was killed as he and several other alleged gang members left a Halloween party on St. James Avenue about 11 p.m. to observe a fight outside between two rival gangs, said South Gate Police Sgt. Russ Galbreath.

Four teen-agers fleeing the fight fired at the spectators, hitting the victim in the chest. The identity of the victim, who died after friends took him to Rancho Los Amigos Hospital in Downey, was not released.

At another Halloween party near MacArthur Park, a fight between rival gang members spilled onto Carondelet Street about 11:30 p.m., resulting in the death of a 20-year-old man, Los Angeles police spokesman Roosevelt Austin said.

Roberto Delgado ran from the others and was chased by a group of young men, one of whom shot Delgado. One suspect was being questioned and five or six others are being sought, Austin said.

In other gang-related violence, Juan Antonio Ramos, 33, was killed early Sunday by a shot fired shortly after midnight through a security screen on the door to his home on West 47th Street, police said.

A friend of the victim had argued with two suspected gang members in a car outside the home moments before the shooting and police speculated that the bullet was meant for the friend. Ramos responded to a knock on the door when he was shot in the face. Police said the gunmen and Ramos’ friend fled, leaving the bleeding victim, who died at California Medical Center at 12:30 a.m..

In a separate incident shortly after midnight in El Sereno, three people were injured in an apparent gang-related drive-by shooting, Los Angeles Police Sgt. Mario Mojarro said.

The victims, two men and a youth whose identities were not released, were leaving a gas station mini-mart at Eastern Avenue and Huntington Drive at the time. They were in stable condition at County-USC Medical Center, police said.

Times staff writer Shawn Hubler contributed to this story.